Jul 16 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Thundercracker (Leader Class) by Hasbro

Hoo boy, folks, am I excited to have this box in my hands. Although, that excitement is tempered a bit by the fact that there’s a shipping box in the corner containing Devastator, but we’ll save that for next week. When I first heard that Hasbro was making the Seekers using a tweaked mold of Generations Jetfire I was both fascinated and horrified. How could that possibly work? Well, all I know is I wanted it to work. I needed some Seekers for my Combiner War Megatron to order around. Aaaand, it doesn’t hurt that Thundercracker has always been one of my favorites because as a kid he was my first Decepticon and one of my very first Transformers.

There’s the packaging. Thundercracker comes in a sizeable window box and packaged in his robot form. Check out the character art on the front of the box. He is seriously pissed off at someone. I suppose the whole Combiner Wars thing on the package could be a little misleading, since he most certainly does not combine with anything and he is woefully out of scale with most of the other figures in this series. But, hey, that was the case for Leader Class Megatron too. The box is totally collector friendly if you have a little patience and a pair of clippers, but I have neither right now, so I’m about to tear this sum’bitch open. Let’s start with his alt mode!

If you’re looking to see the magic of Hasbro’s mad remolding skillz in the alt mode, you’ll be disappointed. This is basically a repaint of Jetfire without the booster assembly pieces (although the clips are still there) and with a new pair of wings. Now, that having been said, it totally works for me as Thundercracker and that’s all thanks to the gorgeous coloring. The bulk of the jet is cast in a deep, rich blue plastic with silver and red paint and a yellow tinted canopy that opens to reveal a detailed cockpit inside. Slap a couple crisp Decepticon logos on the wings and yeah, this’ll do just fine as my ‘Cracker. Not only is the coloring beautiful, but it really brings out some of the panel lining nicely. I don’t know where Hasbro got this new silver that they’re using, but it is fantastic.

Thundercracker comes with the same two sets of guns that came with Jetfire, only instead of that obnoxious red metallic finish, these are just black. You can still clip them onto the wings and undercarriage to give him a lot of firepower. In lieu of the booster pieces, T’Cracker comes with a pair of null rays, which can mount under his wings. Transforming this guy is the same as Jetfire, making him fairly easy for a Leader Class figure, but I’m not going to argue with the results…

I think I’m a little bit in love with this guy. Maybe more than a little bit. He’s got a brand newly sculpted chest, complete with the same style of fake-out chest cockpit that Jetfire had and with the real cockpit on his back. He’s got newly sculpted shoulders too. I think the one thing that bothers me about this figure is the unfinished wings showing to the front. They were already changing the wings, if only they could have prettied them up on the side facing out. I didn’t mind the rough wings so much on Jetfire, but here it bugs me a little, but not enough to ruin the figure. The thrusters peeking out behind his head is certainly a new look for the Seekers, but I’m not hating it, and the detail sculpted into those turbine intakes where his nipples should be is pretty great.

The headsculpt is fabulous. It’s a crisp sculpt with more of that luscious silver paint and some light piping that’s a bit hard to activate. I’m surprised that I didn’t even realize that those iconic Seeker shoulder scoops were missing until after playing around with him for a bit. I wonder how long it will be before a third-party comes up with those? There are even very obvious spots where they could socket in. If someone were to release three pairs of them in a set at a decent price, I’d probably go for it.

Naturally, you have some options with all those guns, but they’re all clearly designed to go somewhere specific. The larger ones can be left on the outsides of the legs to fill out that area, which I think works rather nicely. The null rays can socket into his arms, but unfortunately they socket into the forearms so they do interfere with elbow articulation a bit, and don’t really work when angled up like the original G1 figures or the Classics Seekers. The smaller pair of guns can be pegged into his wings or just left off. While I wish the null rays would have socketed into the shoulders, I still think they look really good when in firing position.

Thundercracker also comes with the missile launching rifle that Jetfire had, only this time cast in black. It’s not a bad gun, but hand guns really aren’t the Seekers’ style so it’ll probably end up going into a drawer, or I might just give it to Jetfire so he can deep six the metallic red one.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this figure, but I was more than a little afraid that he was just going to be Jetfire masquerading as Thundercracker and that is not at all the vibe that I get off of him. It works really well as a new take on the Seeker mold, so long as you’re willing to give up stuff like the shoulder intakes and not having Decepticon emblems facing front on the wings. Like Jetfire, he’s loads of fun to play with thanks mostly to the strong ratcheting joints and the interchangeable weapons. He also scales beautifully with CW Megatron as well as MP Soundwave and MP Optimus Prime. I’ve already got the Starscream repaint pre-ordered and I’m looking forward to seeing Skywarp!

Jul 14 2015

Star Wars Black: Commander Cody by Hasbro

A new wave of Star Wars Black hit my doorstep this week. This time the assortment is comprised of all new releases (IG-88, Leia as Boushh, and Commander Cody), but the case breakout included two Codys. It’s a real shame that Hasbro has been getting away from the original concept of delivering four new figures in each wave, but they’ve become real inconsistant on that point now, causing me to buy these guys individually and pay a couple of extra dollars for each. Cody is actually the one figure in this wave I’m least interested in, but I’m a little pressed for time today so I thought I’d knock him out.

The packaging is still great at showing off the figure, but from an art design standpoint it’s totally utilitarian. Why is there so much text on the box? We’re now up to four different languages and the left panel, where some companies put the name and an image of the figure, is just clogged up with disclaimers and copyright bullshit. They’ve even removed the useless character quote from the back. Oh well. I don’t keep these packages anyway, so let’s shred it open and get Cody out.

If you picked up the 6-inch Black Clone Trooper then a lot of this figure should be familiar to you. He uses a repaint and slight resculpt of that body. The orange trim and unit markings go a long way to making him distinctive, and he’s also got some matte gray paint on his belt and midriff. The resculpted parts on the body consist of a new backpack, an armband, and a rubbery antenna like thing coming off his left shoulder armor. He also has a rank bar on his chest. All in all, this is a decent enough body sculpt. My biggest nitpick would be that they still haven’t opted to paint the pins in the elbow joints to match the black part of the inner suit. It seems like that should probably be something a $20 collector figure would watch out for.

The helmet is all new and it seems to be a pretty good fit for Cody. I’m one of those weirdos who prefers the Phase I armor over this more Stormtrooper-like style, but it still works for me. Cody’s modified helmet features the visor and the antenna, setting him apart from the rest of the cannon fodder. I do think they did a pretty nice job with the paint on the helmet. The blue paint on the side vents is extremely clean and I like the little flame effects on the induction filters. There’s also some decent weathering to the gray stripe on top.

Articulation is the same as we got with the regular Clone Trooper, which is to say pretty good. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and ankles, have double hinged elbows, and swivels at the thighs. His torso is ball jointed just below the armor plate and his neck is ball jointed too. The armor doesn’t really interfere with his poseability and I like that you can actually get him to aim down the barrel of his rifle. Not bad!

Speaking of rifles, Cody comes with the same two weapons as the regular Phase I Clone Trooper. You get the standard pistol and the large rifle, both cast in the same black plastic. It’s always kind of bothered me that these guys don’t have holsters for their pistols like the Stormtroopers do. Or even shoulder straps on those rifles.

I try to be very selective about the Prequel figures I buy because I tend to like those movies even less with each passing year. I can’t even begin to count how many 3 3/4″ Prequel figures I sold off during my Great Star Wars Purge of about five years ago. Nonetheless, I kind of dig Cody here. He’s a solid enough figure and I suppose if I’m going to own one of the Clone officers, it might as well be Cody. On the other hand, if I apply the old FFZ Test to him and ask, “does this figure really benefit in any way from being done in the 6-inch scale?” I’d have to say no. I’m pretty sure Hasbro has done just as good a job with Cody in the 3 3/4″ scale, but I suppose that says as much about how good some of their smaller figures have become then anything else. I suppose a next a regular Phase 3 Clone Trooper is inevitable and yeah, I’ll probably pick one of those up too.

Jul 13 2015

Marvel Legends (Ultron Wave): Ant-Man by Hasbro

It’s been a little while since I last did a Marvel Monday, so how about we start busting into the latest wave of Legends figures and look at Ant-Man from the Ultron BAF Wave. But wait, isn’t the Hulkbuster BAF Wave shipping too? Damn you, Hasbro! Give a brutha’s bank account a little breathing room, will ya? I’m not sure which of these has priority in terms of release, but I happened upon Ant-Man and Wasp from the Ultron Wave first, so that’s where I’m going and I’ll likely run through this whole wave before I start getting into any of the others.

There’s the packaging and, wait… Ant-Man Wave? With an Ultron Build-A-Figure? That’s a bit odd, isn’t it? In the Comic Universe it wouldn’t be odd, but in the Cinematic Universe it sure is. Then again, this isn’t really much of an Ant-Man Wave anyway. It’s half an Ant-Man wave at best. But who am I to complain? We’re getting a MovieVerse Ultron and I don’t care which figure assortment they choose to bundle him into. In this case you’re getting the head. So, where was I? The packaging… there’s nothing new to say about it, so let’s get to the figure.

Obviously, this is Ant-Man from the soon to be released (This Friday… SQUEEEE!) movie and that makes him Scott Lang and not the Hank Pym Ant-Man that so many of us comic readers know and love. That’s OK, though, because I really dig this suit and I’m really looking forward to the movie. And did I mention I love the suit? Well it’s worth saying twice because this is easily one of my favorite costumes to come out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It toes the line just enough to be easily recognized as Ant-Man without wandering too close to the Ultron design, which shared similarities in the comics, but shouldn’t in the films, because of obvious changes. At one point in the movie, Lang speculates as to it’s purpose by referring to it as a motorcycle suit and it does indeed give me that vibe. If it’s something that the elderly Pym wore back in the day then the retro feel is certainly appropriate.

The detail on the suit itself is quite well done and includes a lot of silver trim and fixtures. The red and black deco looks sharp and the silver paint exhibits a tarnished look to give the “metal” pieces a bit of an aged patina.

The portrait includes the very detailed helmet and mask, again with the same aged and distressed silver paint. The exposed mouth area is sculpted rather soft, which is a little at odds with how detailed and sharp everything else on this figure looks. I’m curious as to whether the chin strap will double as a microphone that he will lower his mouth into for the man-to-ant communication. From what I’ve seen, it looks like it might just be a telepathy, rather than a vocalized command and I guess I’m OK with that. I’d say the only other thing about the head that’s worth mentioning is the paint for the eyes is a little thin. I’m considering coloring it in with a red metallic Gundam Marker, but I’d like to see how common the figure is before I start experimenting on it. My experiments at customization usually don’t end well.

Articulation is about what I’ve come to expect from the Legends line, which is to say pretty good. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels in the biceps. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinges in the knees, hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles, and swivels in the thighs. Lang can swivel at the waist, he has an ab crunch hinge in the torso and a ball jointed neck.

In addition to the Ultron BAF part, the figure comes with a handful of extras including a miniature Ant-Man and an ant for him to ride and a miniature Yellowjacket. All are just static pieces and while the Ant-Man and Ant are nowhere near being in scale with this figure, or any figure for that matter, it’s still a nice little bonus. The Yellowjacket, on the other hand, isn’t something I have any use for. Do him in Legends scale, Hasbro, and I promise I’ll buy him. The only thing really missing here is an alternate unmasked Paul Rudd head. I only mention it because we’ve been getting a lot of extra unmasked heads in this scale lately. Iron Man, War Machine, Captain America, Star-Lord… this one really seemed like a no brainer, but I guess if you want that you’ll have to go the Marvel Select route.

There are a lot of furtive whispers about whether or not Ant-Man could be Marvel’s first cinematic flop, but then I seem to recall a number of people saying the same thing about Guardians of the Galaxy and look how that one turned out. Whatever the case, I was honestly worried for a while that we might not see any figures from this film and I’m mighty glad those fears were groundless. Having a Cinematic Universe Ant-Man on my Avengers shelf has made me a very happy camper and I am super pumped to go check out this movie on Friday. It looks like it’s going to be loads of fun.

Jul 3 2015

GI JOE 25th Anniversary Dreadnoks by Hasbro

This Friday I’m putting the Sigma 6 line on hold to check out some 25th Anniversary stuff, which still happens to be my all time favorite line of modern JOEs. Completing my team of the original three Dreadnoks, however, was a real pain in my ass. The first two, Torch and Ripper, came in a Comic 2-Pack that was easy enough to score, but Buzzer came single carded and I could not find him anywhere. Even on the secondary market he was going for more than I wanted to spend on a lone JOE figure. Eventually, I bit the bullet, paid what I had to and added him to my collection. He’s hung in my Toy Closet ever since waiting for a time for me to open him up and take a look at all three. Well, grab your grape soda and chocy donuts, because that time is now!

Buzzer comes on a gorgeous card with foil lettering and that always amazing character art. I’m rarely tempted to collect a line MoC, but if I had the extra money and the wallspace to hang them, this 25th Anni. line would be the one I would do it for. I almost hate to open this guy up, but dammit, my Dreadnoks need to be together! Not to be outdone, Torch and Ripper came as a pair in a Comic Pack, and sadly I don’t have an in-package shot to show you. Suffice it to say the presentation was flawless, complete with a reprint of GI JOE #30 as the backdrop. Let’s go ahead and start with Buzzer because I’ve been waiting a year or so to take the time and open him…

Easily the most conservative looking of these three bastards, Buzzer dons a button down khaki shirt, blue pants and combat boots. His more mainstream look supports his backstory, although for some reason he thought it necessary to reinforce that one shoulder with a piece of plate armor and slap an elbow guard on his right arm. The detail on Buzzer’s outfit is fantastic. You get some grenades sculpted onto his shoulder strap and belt and skulls sculpted onto his boots. But it’s the tiny silver skull and crossbones belt buckle on this guy that really impresses me.

The portrait includes Buzzer’s silver sunglasses and his ponytail with some really nice sculpting on his hair and a little bit of paint for his tiny beard.
You’d have to be batshit crazy to go into a warzone with a gasoline tank strapped to your back, but Buzzer doesn’t care and he needs extra fuel for his only weapon, a custom chainsaw.

This chainsaw remains one of my favorite GI JOE accessories of all time. It’s so lovingly crafted with so much detail and the flame deco on it is just icing on the cake. With a grip on the back and a side grab bar, Buzzer can wield it quite convincingly, which sadly wasn’t always the case with these 25th Anni. figures and their accessories.

Moving on to Ripper, here we’re getting to what looks like an extra in a Mad Max movie. He sports a cut-off camo shirt with a sculpted combat knife on his shoulder strap and a pair of grenades clipped to his shirt. His right arm is bared to show a beautifully sharp tampo tattoo. Like Buzzer’s belt buckle, Ripper has a little skull hanging from a chain on his belt, which is such an awesome little detail. The sculpt below the waist is the same we saw with Buzzer, but with black boots and the skulls picked out with some silver paint.

Ripper’s stocky meathead includes a full beard and a full head of hair styled into a mohawk. He has a pair of red punk glasses and a grimace that says he wants to murder you and possibly eat one or two of your internal organs.

Ripper comes with an elaborate backpack and “jaws of life” rig, which I presume is for prying open vault doors or the cockpits of JOE vehicles, rather than saving lives. In theory, it’s a nice piece of kit, complete with a hose running from the hand unit to the backpack and you can store the hand unit on the backpack. It’s still not a favorite of mine, just because it’s so specialized and that hose is so unwieldy. The hose is so long that it’s obtrusive and it pops out all the time when I pose him.

Fortunately, Ripper also comes with one of my favorite JOE accessories: That iconic Dreadnok rifle with curved bayonet. Man, I love this thing! I’ve always been a bit unsure about who this was intended for. It comes right in the middle of the tray and it looks like it’s positioned to favor Torch rather than Buzzer.

And that brings us to Torch, who he is easily my favorite sculpt of the three figures. We’ve left Mad Max territory and gone to full on contemporary biker thug. Torch’s biker jacket is possibly one of the best executed outfits I can remember Hasbro ever doing in this scale. It’s sculpted separately and attached to the figure’s bare chested body and it looks amazing. The chains on the shoulders and the buckles on the front straps are neatly painted in silver and the back of the jacket is tampo’d with his gang emblem and “Melbourne Maulers.” It’s almost a shame to put his backpack on him and cover up that beautiful piece of work.

The head sculpt here is pretty great too, with copious sideburns leading into his mustache, dark glasses, and a red bandanna. Torch even has a tiny tattoo tampo’d on his left forearm. Hasbro put so much love and detail into these guys!

As his name suggests, Torch’s weapon of choice is a blowtorch, with a tank on his back. Jeez, don’t stand next to Torch or Buzzer when the bullets start flying! Unfortunately, a few things conspire to make Torch’s torch not so great. The plastic hose that connect the torch to the backpack is rather restrictive and his right hand isn’t sculpted to grip the handle very well. Getting him to hold this thing can be a chore. Fortunately, I have a spare one of those Dreadnok rifles to give him. There’s also a holster on his leg where you can clip the torch when it isn’t use.

Articulation on all three of these figures is identical. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and ankles. The wrists swivel and the knees have double hinges. There are ball joints in the torsos and in the necks. While it all sounds good on paper, the 25th Anniversary figures have become notorious for some poor articulation designs. It’s virtually impossible to get these figures to hold rifles across their chests with both hands and the forearms are pegged in to allow the swivel and they frequently pop out. It’s an unfortunate set of circumstances that mar some otherwise great sculpts.

With the Dreadnoks always being a favorite of mine, it’s great to finally have this trio together and on my JOE shelf. Considering how much I love the 25th Anni. line, it’s no small compliment when I say that I think these three are among the best this line has to offer. They capture everything I loved about the original characters, give them some highly detailed gear and made them lots of fun to play with. It’s a pity I’ll never pony up for that 25th Zaranna figure, but at some point I’ll still have to double back and pick up that Dreadnok 7-pack that Hasbro did a while back.

Jul 2 2015

Transformers Commemorative Series Insecticons by Hasbro

My Unite Warriors Superion should be shipping any day now. Hopefully it will be here in time for next week’s Transformers Thursday. In the meantime, here’s a set that’s been sitting on my shelf for a long while and one that seemed appropriate to look at now. Not only are the Insecticons getting a whole lot of love from the Third Parties these days (got my Fans Toys versions on pre-order!), but the original figures recently got re-re-released as part of Takara’s Platinum Edition line.

In case you’re unfamiliar, the Commemorative Series was a line of G1 reissues exclusive to Toys R Us back in the day. The releases came in some snazzy G1 inspired boxes, usually with velcro-secured front flaps. This was some fantastic presentation! Walking into Toys R Us and seeing these things stacked high on the shelves was like a dream come true. Many of the Autobot cars got re-releases as well as the Seeker Jets and even a very Takara-esque Powermaster Optimus Prime, which is still one of my all-time favorite old-timey Transformers toys. Needless to say being able to walk into a store and snag all three Insecticons in one neat box made me a happy camper. There’s not a whole helluva lot to say about these guys, but I’ll still take some time to bask in their retro awesomeness. Let’s start with their insect modes…

Kickback was probably my favorite as a kid and still is. He’s a really cool looking cyber-grasshopper. I’ll just go ahead and point out here how amazing the decos on these toys were. The black and purple go so great together, but when you toss in the chrome parts and the translucent yellow these things had a way of turning heads. It’s rare that I can remember being attracted to a toy as a kid just because of its colors, but here’s a case where it was probably a big part of it and today they’re still as gorgeous as ever. My favorite thing about Kickback was always his wings and his creepy, almost featureless, insect head.

I think Bombshell probably fell in at number two. He’s got a nice compact alt mode and I was a big fan of that needle-like protuberance coming off his head. One problem with these reissues is that the stickers don’t stick so well. Every time I take these out of the box I need to press some of them back on. Eventually, I’ll get tired of doing it and just glue them down proper like.

And that brings us to their leader, Shrapnel. Just because I say his insect mode comes up third, doesn’t mean I don’t like them. It’s like saying that French Vanilla is my third favorite ice cream. I actually love Shrapnel’s chromed out pincers and the fact that they have laser guns on the ends. I think the only thing that mars this insect mode for me is he kind of looks looks more like a bug riding along on wheels than the others do.

I’m not going to rank these guys when it comes to their robot modes, because I don’t think I could choose a favorite. They all look so good. Each figure is pretty close to its animated counterpart and with at least five basic points of articulation, these are some of the more playable of the G1 Transformers toys. Their transformations are also so simple that they were super fun to play with because I could take them from bug to robot and back in no time. Kickback has the cleanest of all robot modes and the way his insect legs join together to form his robot arms is pretty sophisticated stuff for a G1 toy. I also really dig the drum magazine on his rifle. It kind of looks like a futuristic Tommy Gun.

Bombshell is a little more bug kibbly, but still a great looking figure. I knew some kids who transformed him with his cerebro shell launcher flat against his back, but they were wrong. I liked the distinctive look it gave him and the fact that it could be ready to fire at any time. Bombshell’s head sculpt is also super distinctive. That mouth plate always reminds me of the lower part of a knight’s helmet. His double-pronged rifle is also really distinctive looking and of the three it’s the only one that actually fits into the hand via a peg.

Shrapnel’s big appeal for me will always be the head reveal. I love how the pincers split open to show his face. It’s brilliant. I also really dig the laser guns he’s got mounted under his wrists. The original Shrapnel that I had as a kid got so loose that it was almost impossible to keep his legs extended while he stood, but thankfully I don’t have that problem with this reissue. At least not yet.

Even after nearly all of my Commemorative Series figures have gone the way of Ebay, this one remains and forever will. It’s impossible for me to put my finger on exactly why I love the Insecticons so much, but it’s an affection that was bred from both the cartoon and the original toys and one that I’ve never managed to shake. Being able to get a brand new minty set of these back in the day meant a hell of a lot to me and I think these figures hold up incredibly well even after all these years. The original price on this set was just under forty bucks, which didn’t seem too unreasonable at the time. Sure, they’re small and simple figures but I expect Hasbro to goose the price on these collector reissues and at about thirteen bucks a figure I was happy. Five years or so later I would expect some inflation, but when I saw the $90 price tag on the Platinum Edition I was rather taken aback. The scary thing is, if that were the first reissue and I didn’t already have a set, I might have ponied up for it. One thing’s for sure, getting these guys out and playing around with them again has me super pumped for the Fans Toys versions, the first of which should be shipping pretty soon!

Jun 26 2015

GI JOE SIgma 6: Tunnel Rat by Hasbro

I’m pressing on with this whole GI JOE thing on Fridays this Summer as I work my way through a box of Sigma 6 figures sprinkled with some 25th and 50th Anniversary stuff I never got around to looking at. I had so much fun playing with Snake Eyes last Friday that I decided to knock out another S6 figure and today it’s Tunnel Rat. There’s no packaged shot, so let’s get right to the figure…

And here he is! Tunnel Rat is certainly no newcomer to the JOE team, but this S6 version of the character is a pretty big departure to what I’m used to. And that’s OK, because this line is all about new directions. Can I tell you right now how freaking terrified I am at the very concept of Tunnel Rat’s job. I’m not talking so much about the explosive ordinance disposal, although that’s pretty scary on its own. No, I mean the going through enemy tunnels shit. If you want some great nightmare fuel get yourself a copy of The Tunnels of Cu Chi. Holy shit! What? Oh yeah, back to the figure.

TR features the standard buck that this line uses for the slighter built characters. It’s the same we saw for Snake Eyes only with orange highlights and a new pair of sculpted boots. The lean body works well as he has has to snake his way through some tight spots. He also has an equipment harness, which is a combination of elastic and plastic and buckles around his chest and waist. There are peg holes galore on both the body and the harness so you can stick accessories all over him.

Since it’s the same body as Snake Eyes you also get the cool flip up arm computer. I love this thing!

I like the head sculpt a lot. The features are particularly well defined, especially the nose and mouth and ears. The paint for the eyes and eyebrows is super crisp. He has a skull cap and a pair of goggles with an elastic strap, which can be worn up on his forehead, down around his neck, or over his eyes. Naturally, you also get the standard issue metal dog tag on chain for around his neck.

Tunnel Rat features the same articulation as Snake Eyes, which means a ton of rotating hinges. You get them in his shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. He can swivel at the waist and you get ball joints in the torso and neck. As usual, the joints are strong and satisfying and the figure is wonderfully durable.

GEAR!!! I love gear and weapons and accessories! Sigma 6 is a line that delivers and Tunnel Rat is no exception. The biggest showpiece in his collection is his sled-backpack. This thing clips onto his harness and while it’s fairly large and bulky it isn’t unreasonable as a backpack. I dig how the two snake lights angle up on his shoulders making them useful in both modes.

When you take it off of him and extend out the lower wheels it becomes a sled similar to the creepers that mechanics use. He can use this to inch his way through tunnels or perhaps under explosive devices. Pretty neat.

Next up, he has this totally bitchin butterfly knife that really works. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of these included with an action figure before. It’s such a cool piece and I could imagine him using it to pry plates off of bomb casings, cut wires, or just fight with when he runs out of ammo.

Grenades! Tunnel Rat comes with two grenades with pegs that allow them to be held on various parts of his body. These include some neon green paint that highlights most of his gear.

And then we get to his guns. For starters, he has an automatic weapon with a peg so he can wear it on his hip or on his back. The tiny magazine is even removable. The gun works really well with the figure’s articulation. You can get all sorts of great poses out of him with it.

And lastly, there’s his assault rifle. Again, some of the detail on this piece is picked out with neon green paint, which I think looks rather cool. Maybe it’s designed so he can find it in the dark. It includes a strap so you can sling it on his shoulder or across his back. Surpringly, the magazine does not come out. Weird that they would make that a feature on the tiny gun and not the larger weapon.

So yeah… Tunnel Rat is all sorts of awesome. The sheer playability of his articulation combined with all that neat gear make him so much fun to pick up and so hard to put down. Even for a figure that shares almost an entire buck, he feels so unique and he’s loaded with personality. After a couple years of not having him, it’s damn good to welcome him back to the collection.

Jun 19 2015

GI JOE SIgma 6: Snake Eyes by Hasbro

I realize that I’m at odds with a lot of JOE fans when I say that my love of Snake Eyes diminished the more the franchise went on. By the time I set toys aside for a while in the 90’s I had a bad case of Snake Eyes fatigue. The simple Commando that I knew and loved turned into some kind of uber-ninja. I won’t hold that against him as I check out the Sigma 6 version of the character, because I absolutely love this figure, which is probably evidenced by how long today’s entry wound up running and the fact that I couldn’t stop taking pictures.

I’ve got no packaged shot, but now is as good a time as any to point out that the early figures in this series used plastic tops and bottoms for the blister cards and you could assemble these into a cool foot locker to keep the accessories. They had foam inserts to keep everything neat, but with a lot of the figures you had to gut out the foam inserts if you wanted to get all the accessories in there. It was always an impossible decision for me. As my collection grew, these began to take up a lot of room, but they also worked well as risers for displaying rows of figures behind others. This one is missing one of the locks and the foam is gone, but at least I can get all of Snake Eyes’ shit in there.

And here he is… Snake Eyes is perfectly suited to a line like Sigma 6, which focuses on accessories and the creative ways in which they can interact with the figure. Taken on his own, Snake Eyes is about as simple a figure as you can get. He sports the angular and highly stylized aesthetic of the line with what looks like a hi-tech armored Ninja suit. His outfit is black with olive green accents. There’s some really nice texturing on some areas of the suit and he is covered with ports to peg in accessories. It’s taken right out of the old Centurions action figure line and I love it! Snake Eyes also sports a really cool set of soft goods web gear with shoulder pads and working buckles and the usual metal dog tag.

One of my favorite little touches on this figure is the pop up computer on his left arm. I forgot all about this feature until it happened to pop open while I was playing with him. So damn cool!

The portrait shows only a pair of rather large anime-style eyes with what looks like a hint of some creepy scarring. Frankly, I find unmasked Snake Eyes rather unsettling, but thankfully we can remedy that. You have three display options with Snake Eyes’ mask to cover up those creepy peepers. You get his traditional segmented visor, in this case painted silver. He also comes with a set of night vision goggles and a gas mask with a complete face shield. OK, the gas mask actually magnifies his scary eyes, so… nope. All three pieces fit the figure’s head quite well and will usually remain in place while I play around with him.

Articulation consists of the usual medley of rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. You get a swivel at the waist and ball joints in the torso and neck. The joints all feel so wonderfully chunky and strong and he just invites you to play around with him and see what he can do. This must have been a great line for kids because the figures are very nearly indestructible.

Let’s talk gear! For starters, Snake Eyes comes with no less than three blades: One short and two longer swords, all three of which come in plastic scabbards. The shorter weapon’s scabbard has an elastic strap to go around the figure’s leg, while the other two have pegs so you can put them on his hips or on his back. The pommels of the swords are also socket-ed so you can join either two swords together or the sword and the dagger to make a bitchin’ double bladed pole arm. Sweet!

Snake Eyes also comes with his trademark Uzi. It’s gray and black and sports some really nice sculpted detail. There’s a peg to attach it to the figure and the magazine is removable with a tiny painted bullet at the top.

You also get a plethora of other weird gear. There’s a set of grip bars for a zip-line and two giant suction cups for him to climb walls with.
And then there’s this crazy-ass thing. It’s like a giant yo-yo of death. It has retractable blades, but it’s so damn big, it isn’t of much use to me. There aren’t many accessories in this line that I have no use for, but Snake Eye’s yo-yo is one of them and it’s going into the dreaded Tote of Forgotten Accessories.

Snake Eyes was one of those figures that I lost in the closet flood several years back. In fact, I believe he may have been the first figure I picked up in this line. While there are plenty of figures in S6 that have more interesting designs and more complex weapons, I’d dare say that if you were only going to get one figure to see what this line is all about that one should probably be Snake Eyes. He tells you all there is to know about the spirit of Sigma 6 and he is an absolute blast to play with. Naturally, I’m very happy to have him back in my collection. He’s a super fun figure that’t truly hard to put down. Now all I need to do is replace my Storm Shadow so I have someone for him to fight again… And maybe that Ninja Cycle… And a few of the other Sigma 6 versions of Snake Eyes…

Jun 12 2015

GI JOE Sigma 6: Lockdown by Hasbro

It was about five years ago that I lost three banker boxes of toys to a minor flood in one of my closets. It wouldn’t have been so bad if I had noticed earlier, but by the time I did the boxes and contents had mold damage and everything had to go. Among these boxes were the two that housed my entire collection of Sigma 6 figures. It was a sad day. I’ve finally begun not only replacing the ones I’ve lost, but picking up some that I never had that brings me to this week’s GI JOE content. Let’s check out Lockdown…

I’ve got no packaged shot, so let’s get right to the figure, because this guy is one of my absolute favorites, and I’m going to try really hard to not say that in every S6 Feature that I do. While many of the JOES of S6 were re-imagined versions of what we all knew and loved, I believe SWAT officer Lockdown was a brand new character. I don’t recall him ever appearing in the cartoon and he was a rather late release in the line. It was a time when Hasbro was really exploring some great possibilities with this scale and format, but they also unfortunately discontinued the cool foot locker aspect of the packaging. Ah well, those things took up a lot of space anyway. Also, the Centurians-style peg system that let you attach stuff all over the figure seemed to take a backseat to the sculpts.

The angular style and chunky proportions of these figures always reminded me a bit of Kenner’s Small Soldiers figures. It takes some getting used to and in truth it wasn’t until I had one of these figures in hand to play with that they really won me over. But despite the super stylized design, the sculpt on this guy is wonderfully detailed. The uniform includes folds, buttons, pouches, and belts. The blue and black color scheme is simple, but effective. And as with all of these guys, Lockdown features a metal dog tag on a chain around his neck.

The head sculpt is loaded with personality and features a pair of permanent sculpted sunglasses. This guy looks like one tough customer. As much as I dig it, I will probably never display this figure without his kick ass helmet. It fits over the head beautifully and looks so great on him. OK, maybe I’ll display him holding the helmet in the crook of his elbow because that looks pretty great too.

A huge part of Sigma 6’s appeal is the articulation and Lockdown doesn’t disappoint. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and knees. There are swivels at the tops of the boots and hinges in the ankles. Lockdown can swivel at the waist and he has ball joints in the torso and neck. What’s even better is that every one of these joints is tight and effective making this figure crazy fun to play with. Also, the chunky boats and great balance makes Lockdown really good at holding poses.

Of course, the main attraction of S6 is the gear. In true spirit of the original 70’s JOEs, these guys come with all sorts of neat equipment and weapons. Lockdown’s gear is great, but it tends to lack the customization that some of the earlier figures’ accessories had. Also, there’s not as much interactivity with the figure in terms of being able to attach it to his body, so we’ll have to look for that stuff in a future review. That having been said, there’s some neat stuff here. For starters, Lockdown features a chunky sub machine gun, which he can hold in either or both hands. This thing is wonderfully ridiculous and includes a silver and black deco with some blue and green accents.

He also comes with a riot shield, which is designed to be held or stand up on its own as a barrier. It’s cast from a slab of blue plastic and has SWAT printed across the front.

You also get a pair of handcuffs that work surprisingly well on the figures.

And lastly, he features a huge spring-loaded battering ram for busting down doors. Knock-Knock, Cobra!

It’s so hard for me to play with a figure like this and reconcile the hatred that so many fans have for this line. I like to think it goes back to a time when 3 3/4″ JOE was almost soley available through that Direct-To-Consumer line and longtime JOE fans saw these as weird and unworthy replacements. I can dig that. But as a fan who’s love for JOE predates the Real American Hero revival of the 80’s, I have nothing but love for these guys. Hasbro tried something incredibly original here and as far as I’m concerned it paid off big time. Give me a fun, poseable figure like this, a great assortment of gear, and I’m good to go for hours.

Jun 11 2015

Transformers Combiner Wars: Brake-Neck by Hasbro

Yeah, yeah… I was one of those people complaining about Offroad and Hasbro trying to slip an imposter into my Stunticons. Nothing personal, Offroad, you’re a decent figure. I’ll find a place for you in my Decepticon ranks, but there’s no room for you on this team, so um… hit the road. Make way for Brake-Neck, aka Wildrider. The genuine article has arrived!

And here’s the packaging and I’ve got nothing new to say about it other then Brake-Neck comes packaged in his robot mode and you get a delicious reprint comic book bundled in. Also, while I’m disappointed that he couldn’t be called Wildrider, I approve of the punny spelling of his name. Anywho… we now know that it was all part of Hasbro’s grand scheme to slip a couple of molds into the Stunticons and Aerialbots that can be re-purposed for other combiner teams and then get us the “real” team members after we had already bought the impostors. Well, you only got me by half, Hasbro. I may have bought Offroad but not Alpha Bravo. Nope, I’m going to Takara for my Superion, thank you very much.

It takes only one look at Brake-Neck to see that he’s a straight repaint of Dead End. That’s fine by me, because Dead End was easily my favorite of these new Stunticons. It’s the same sleek and beautifully contoured car sculpt with a less flashy paint job that bears a passing resemblence to the coloring of G1 Wildrider. The two-tone grey paint looks nice, but the red door panels look rather unfinished to me. I do, however, like the way they omitted the paint from the rear window to drive the homage a bit further. On the other hand, I wish they had centered the Decepticon insignia on his hood. All in all, a really love this auto mode.

Brake-Neck comes with the same exhaust pipe that can be plugged into either side of the car. You can even peg it on top if you’re feeling wild. I wish to Primus they had bundled him with one of the other Stunticon’s weapons.

In robot mode we can see that Brake-Neck does have one new piece of sculpting and that’s his noggin. And yes, with his red face and ear spikes, he does indeed resemble the Wildrider that I knew and loved. The new deco does it’s best to make him stand apart from Dead End, especially if you stand one on each end of the shelf. I really dig the purple paint on his chest and the darker plastic used for that odd combiner port on his leg makes it not stand out so much on this release. Everything else, including articulation is identical to Dead End.

The only question that remains is does Brake-Neck magically transform Menasor into a great combiner figure? Nope. I will, however, say that he helps to improve it. I was not a big fan of Offroad’s chunky hood just below the knee. Of course, you also still have the option to flip them around old-school style, so that the bottoms of the cars are facing front. I still think that looks a lot better even if it does inhibit Menasor’s knee articulation. I’m almost ashamed to admit at how much I’m warming up to Menasor as a combiner.

And so, I finally have my Combiner Wars Wildrider and all is right with the world. He’s a fine figure and I’m happy to have him on the team. I’m even more ecstatic that he was easiy to get online and only cost me a couple of bucks over what these figures tend to go for when hanging on the pegs. It’s a toss up on which CW figures you’ll be seeing next here. I still have to pick up Blackjack and my pre-order for Takara’s Superion is due to hit any time now. I’m still debating whether or not to go for the Takara version of Defensor so I can get that Deluxe Groove, but if I spot any of the Protectobots in the stores all bets may be off. In the meantime, next Transformers Thursday I’ll be bending the rules and checking out a little Third-Party action.

Jun 9 2015

Star Wars Black: Deluxe Han Solo and Tauntaun by Hasbro

The first Wave of Deluxe figures from Hasbro’s Star Wars Black line was 50-50 for me. I loved the Scout Trooper on Speeder Bike, but was not so crazy about Jabba. The third and fourth releases in this size assortment are both Hoth themed, giving us Han Solo and a Tauntaun, which I’m looking at today, and Luke Skywalker and a Wampa, which oddly enough doesn’t seem to be included as part of the assortment, so I guess these are shipping separately, two per case. Hoth tends to be one of my favorite scenes of the movies as far as toys are concerned, so I was naturally pretty excited to get this set.

The box is more or less identical to the style and deco used for the last two Deluxes. It’s black and bland and boring, but it does a nice job of showing off the toy inside. I don’t mind it, because it doesn’t make me feel bad about ripping it open and throwing it away. But hey, I always thought Tauntaun was spelled Taun Taun. As in two words. Maybe that was just me. Let’s start with the Han figure.

Han comes all bundled up for cold weather in his blue parka. Yes, BLUE! Just like it should be! Now, I’m not going to join in the age old nerd debate over what color it really was, nor do I care. Kenner made it blue and that’s what I’ve always gone by. I spent a hell of a lot more time playing with that action figure than Han had screen time wearing the outfit, so that’s the color that is burned into my brain. I like the way the outfit is executed, with the vest-style portion sculpted onto buck and the sculpted arm-sleeves. The lower part of the parka is soft plastic and attached under where the belt sits, so it all looks like one jacket, even though it’s a composite. The sculpted detail throughout the costume is quite good. The parka is textured and has the quilted pattern on the shoulders, which also appears on the knees.

The portrait isn’t terrible, but I think the likeness is only recognizable to me because of the iconic outfit. I don’t see Gentle Giant’s name on the packages anymore, so I’m guessing that partnership has ended. I’ll concede that the likness should be better in a Collector’s line produced at this scale, but at the same time, I’m not really taking issue with what we got. It’s OK. I do like that they took the time to sculpt the scar that Ford has on his chin, but then I think they usually get that bit right. The head has the hat sculpted onto it, but the hood is it’s own piece that can be taken off completely. It tends to ride off the shoulders if I don’t keep pushing it down and the split up the back is a little unsightly. The goggles are also removable and in fact come separate in the box. They look great warn up on the cap with the hood on and look fine worn around the neck. They don’t look so great when placed on Han’s face. I think Hasbro should have made these out of clear plastic and painted the rims and strap as the painted green lens doesn’t look terribly convincing.

Articulation is right in line with what we’ve been seeing in this series. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows. We usually get the same in the wrists, but in this case you just get swivels at the ends of the gloves.The lack of swivels in the biceps is a tad disappointing. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, have swivels in the thighs, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint at the waist and both a ball joint and hinge in the neck.

Han comes with the same gun belt used for the first Han release, which means it is removable and it does feature a functional holster for his blaster. It never occurred to me that he used the same belt in the movie, but I guess it makes sense. I also really dig this belt a lot. It wears well on the figure and the holster with retraining strap is great. The gun is the same DL-44 blaster that came with the original Han figure. It’s still a decent looking gun and he can hold it in either hand.

You also get his binoculars, which is a nice try, but not a very useful accessory. He can wear them around his neck, but they pop out pretty far. I tend to prefer to put them over his shoulder. They seem way over-sized and will likely wind up in my Tote of Forgotten Accessories. The scanning unit would have been a much better accessory.

I do have one major bone to pick with this figure and that’s the scale. If you stand Hoth Han next to regular Han, he’s considerably taller, which is absolutely ridiculous. Hasbro has had problems with scale in this line before, one which we’ll see more of when Leia in Boushh disguise ships, and I find it to be a sloppy and unacceptable oversight in this type of collector line. Fortunately, my Han will probably spend most of the time astride his steed, so it won’t be as noticeable. Which brings us to…

…the Tauntaun! And I have some real mixed feeling about this guy, mainly because he really does feel like an up-scaled version of a smaller toy. Although even that statement is somewhat generous because the Vintage Collection Tauntaun looks to be a far more complex sculpt than this guy. But that’s just me going by pictures, because I don’t have that figure in my collection. I think my biggest issue with this new and larger version lies in the body. The fur looks too smooth and plastic and there isn’t a lot of depth to the sculpt. It’s a nice, big impressive piece, but I think Hasbro could have done a better job with the paint and fur.

The rest of what’s here is pretty good. I like the head sculpt a lot, especially the sculpted detail in the horns and the painted detail on the eyes and mouth. The saddle is nicely done as well, complete with detailed gear. It pegs into the body of the beast, so it is removable. The stirrups are designed to work well with the figure and Han can sit in the saddle in a convincing manner, even if his butt doesn’t want to go all the way into the seat.

Tauntaun’s articulation includes hind legs which rotate at the body and have rotating hinges at the ankles. The front legs rotate at the body and the neck is ball jointed, but mostly just moves side to side. Oddly enough, there’s no hinge in the jaw. Hey, Hasbro… why does Bossk get a hinged jaw and not this big guy? The articulation feels lacking, but then when you compare this piece to the Speeder Bike or even to Jabba, both at the same price point, I’m not sure it’s fair to complain.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m disappointed in this set, but then I have learned to temper my expectations from this line. It’s a solid release, not a bad value at the price point considering how big the Tauntaun is, but there’s certainly opportunity for improvement, especially when you can argue that both figures have been done at least as well in the smaller 3 3/4″ scale. The truth is, I’m still excited to get the Luke and Wampa set and if Hasbro wanted to get us a 6-inch Scale Probe Droid and throw a snowy-repaint Chewy in there, I’d happily buy that too.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: hasbro